Does your audience say you made their day?

On a recent teleseminar, one of my participants mentioned that his audiences are frequently attending for CEUs, and that they weren't particularly enthusiastic about being there.

And we've all had audiences like that, who are mandated for one reason or another, and aren't there by choice or because they're particularly interested in our topic. When our audiences are less than enthusiastic, it's tempting to be unenthusiastic ourselves.

It's tempting to just go through the motions because, hey, they don't want to be there anyway. And believe me, I've seen my share of this kind of presentation.

But guess what: You could turn someone's day completely around. You could actually give them value for their time that they would appreciate and remember.

Here's an example: My husband recently attended a conference on the East Coast. It wasn't his choice to go; he was sent by his company, and he wasn't very excited about it.

On day one, he texted me to say that the first presentation was so great that the whole trip was worth it.

Now, couldn't you do that for someone?

Why not make your presentation the best possible experience for them, anyway? So that when they leave they say, "I'm really glad I came."

Take the time to make the little things count. Craft an engaging opening. Wrap up with a strong closing. Incorporate audience interaction. Tell stories, use analogies, make it interesting. Connect.

Do all the things you do when your audience wants to be there. Make it fun for yourself and for them, too.

Give them an experience that erases the ho-hum attitude they walked in with, and replaces it with "The whole trip was worth it."

A presentation tool you don't want to be without!

A quick video tip for you today: A presentation tool you don't want to be without!



Here's where to find the GigaWare 4-port travel hub.

Giving back, doing what I love

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I'm feeling very privileged today to have been awarded Women's Economic Ventures' 2013 Santa Barbara County Volunteer of the Year at their Empowerment is Priceless breakfast.

I completed WEV's Self-Employment Training (SET) in 2004, for a jewelry business I had started after being laid off three times in four years from nonprofits that kept running out of money for my positions.

It was one of my classmates who, after hearing me speak for the nonprofit I had co-founded, asked if I could help her present herself better to represent her business.

The light bulb went on -- coaching, training, speaking, teaching! -- and the rest is history. Everything I learned from WEV about starting my first business I then applied to my second, and 7 and a half years later I'm still here, growing and thriving, with a soft spot for working with entrepreneurs and nonprofits.

And lucky for me, the majority of the volunteering I do for WEV is speaking in classrooms. You don't have to twist my arm to get me to wax eloquent about my WEV experiences and successes, or to share my tips about business networking and using social media and speaking to grow your business. It's only my favorite thing to do.

WEV is dedicated to creating an equitable and just society through the economic empowerment of women, and their programs, including SET, the Business Plan Intensive, SET to Launch, Thrive in Five, coaching, consulting and their Small Business Loan Fund, have helped thousands of women start, grow and thrive in their businesses.

The WEV sisterhood is strong here in Santa Barbara (there are also men who go through the program and I'm including them in the "sisterhood"). When SET grads meet, we have an immediate connection. Even those whose business ideas turned out not to be viable still know they can always start again. We have the knowledge, the tools and the support whenever we need it.

As much as getting this award makes me feel like maybe I should retire, I will keep volunteering for WEV as long as they ask me and as often as they ask me!

Pictures from the event to follow...

Never give up on your speaking goals

Click to see full size.  From Funders and Founders.

On a recent call in a group coaching program I'm part of, our coach used the graphic to the left as the topic of discussion. As an entrepreneur, I could relate to everything in the graphic and how resiliency is a hallmark of successful entrepreneurs. If every setback makes you feel like quitting, then you're not cut out to be an entrepreneur!

I found that the concepts in this graphic also happen to apply to speakers, so I'm going to share my thoughts with you on resiliency and "not giving up" for speakers.

1. Stay alive

The graphic says, "As long as you are alive, anything is still possible."

This goes for those of you who tell me, "I'm going to bore the audience," or "I'm never going to feel confident onstage," or "I always forget what I wanted to say," and a million other similar statements of defeat.

As long as you are alive, anything is possible. Every time you get on stage, you have the opportunity to prove yourself wrong! Every time you get on stage, you have another opportunity to improve as a speaker.

Of course, if you don't get on stage, none of these opportunities present themselves, so you have to actually get the speaking engagements on your calendar in order to learn and grow from them. But there's no reason to give up. You have all the time in the world!

2. Lower your expectations

The graphic says, "99.99% of success took TIME."

Once you start getting those speaking engagements and making them happen, you still have work to do. You still have to practice, you still have to revise and refine your content, you still have to figure out what works with your audiences.

Getting better as a speaker takes time. It takes work. If you're willing to put in the time and do the work, you will improve. You might even become great!

3. Stronger

The graphic says, "You are stronger than you think."

So many fears and anxiety come from the "what ifs" of speaking. What if I lose my place? What if I tell a joke and it's not funny? What if I can't remember what I was going to say? What if I can't answer their questions?

Guess what: Those things will happen. Every single one of them. And more. And you'll survive. You'll move on. You'll even laugh about it later.

None of those things is the end of the world and, in fact, every single person in your audience has had the same experience, so they can empathize.

And if they haven't had the same experience, it's because they haven't put themselves out there in the world like you have. But they'll at least sympathize, so don't worry.

4. Persist

The graphic says, "Try lots of different things."

Every audience is different, and sometimes you'll find that one audience responds really well to a story or an activity, but another doesn't. That's okay. Keep trying new things. If something works well for most audiences, keep it, but remember that every audience has its own culture, and sometimes things just don't resonate. That doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just wrong for that audience.

Keep tweaking and adjusting so every audience has the best experience you can give them.

5. Fake it

The graphic says, "Fake success before it's real."

As a speaker, whether or not you feel strong, powerful, confident or ready, you have to get on that stage and deliver. Look confident on the outside with good posture, good eye contact, a well-projecting voice and purposeful movement, and the audience will perceive your confidence, even if you're not quite there yet on the inside.

The good thing about faking it is that your inside will likely follow along until you're not even faking it any more.

6. The dip

The graphic says, "Right before success, you will face the worst."

I think we all agree that sometimes something has to go really wrong before we're willing to take action to fix it. You can be gliding along, giving the same canned presentation to lukewarm audiences for a long time. But one of those audiences is going to rebel. You're going to get bad evaluations or you're going to face challenges from audience members. Something will happen that rocks your world and makes you feel really bad. We've all been there.

Learn from it. Take it as a sign that it's time to up your game. Don't dwell on it or let it bring you down (well - you can dwell on it for a day, but then move on). Make a commitment to excellence. Give your presentations the time, focus and care that your audience deserves.

How do you interpret the messages on the graphic as they apply to speakers? Share in the comments!

Fun Friday: Miss America introductions

I never managed to post this in January, but it's a perfect video for a Fun Friday! The Miss America pageant figured out a way to make 53 introductions fun, engaging and quick (just over ten minutes)! Enjoy the short video. I've included a few of the introductions below if you prefer to read instead.



"From the state that brought you Channing Tatum, People's Sexiest Man Alive: You're Welcome. I'm Anna Laura Bryan, Miss Alabama."

"From the state where your vote counts, and counts, and counts, I'm Laura McKeeman, Miss Florida."

"From the state that celebrates diversity -- from Scarlett O'Hara to Honey Boo Boo -- I'm Leighton Jordan, Miss Georgia."

"From the home of Abraham Lincoln -- before he was a movie -- I'm Megan Ervin, Miss Illinois."

"From the home of Aerosmith: Rock on, America. I'm Taylor Kinzler, Miss Massachusetts."

"From the state that weds 150 couples each day in Las Vegas -- Tim Tebow, what do you say we make it 151? -- I'm Randi Sundquist, Miss Nevada."

"Sandy may have swept away our shores, but never our spirit. I'm Miss New York, Mallory Hagan."

"From the state where we use sushi as bait, and no, y'all are the ones with the accent, I am Miss South Carolina, Ali Rogers."

Forget perfection: Strive for connection.

"The adults of the last four generations have blessed our children with the destiny of a shorter life span than their own parents."

TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver has this wish:

"I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." Watch his video to see how he envisions this happening (my comments are below).



(If the video isn't showing up, go to this link.)

Jamie Oliver is a perfect example of an imperfect yet moving and memorable speaker. He paces around the stage, out of breath and talking at the speed of light, but his message is clear and powerful.

His examples are relevant: He shows a graph of causes of death in the United States and says, "We spend our lives being paranoid about death, murder, homicide -- you name it, it's on the front page of every paper, CNN. Look at homicide at the bottom, for God's sake." The first three causes of death on the chart are all diet-related.

He balances grim facts and statistics with humor and a touch of sarcasm: "School food is something that most kids -- 31 million a day, actually -- have twice a day more than often, breakfast and lunch, 190 days of the year. So you could say that school food is quite important, really, judging the circumstances." He gets a laugh from the audience.

He offers practical solutions: "Under the circumstances, it's profoundly important that every single American child leave school knowing how to cook ten recipes that will save their life.... If you can cook, recession money doesn't matter. If you can cook, time doesn't matter."

His graphics, video clips (children who don't recognize tomatoes, potatoes or cauliflower; a mom who believes she's killing her children with food) and images are chosen wisely. He even interacts with the audience, asking for a show of hands -- I rarely see anyone do this at TED. He's passionate, persuasive and driven. You can't help but want to see his vision come true. You can't help but want to jump on board, somehow.

Isn't this really what matters in a speaker? Isn't this the kind of presentation an audience really wants to spend time listening to? Isn't this the kind of presentation that makes an impact on a person and inspires change?

I'm so tired of the um-obsessed, gesture-memorizing, rule-based culture of speaking. I'll take an exuberant speaker with a compelling message whose skills and techniques are rough over a rehearsed-to-death speaker any day.

Maybe I'm in the minority, and maybe not for long.

Be a better moderator: Stay out of your head

Photo Credit: net_efekt via Compfight cc

The topic of "being present" during presentations or while waiting to be introduced to speak has come up a lot lately in my conversations with clients and on this blog. I find that it's one of the simplest tools to get a speaker out of the thoughts of doom in her head and into the room where she's going to speak.

Another application of this principle came to mind last week while I was reviewing a client's performance as a moderator. I noted that she had done a really good job of giving prompts and making interjections when she felt the speaker could elaborate more or explain a point better.

A lot of moderators just let the speakers go on and on and never make the effort to make the panel a better experience for the audience. After all, panels are made of of disparate speakers, who frequently don't know each other and have had no time to review questions or the format of their session. Concise speakers are mixed with long-winded. Prepared speakers are mixed with unprepared. Clever speakers are mixed with dull.

Moderators are the glue that holds panels together, but they also have the role of introducer, referee, timer, coach, guide, translator and editor.

What my client did so well during her panel was listen. She stayed present with what each speaker was saying so that, if a point needed clarifying, she could make that request. If a speaker mentioned something that should be expanded upon, she could ask the speaker to elaborate. She could call upon points made by earlier speakers and tie them into a current speaker's point.

The moderator's work made the panel discussion so much smoother and more cohesive than had she just let them run with the topic. Knowing that a major speaker had pulled out of the conference at the last minute and that this panel had been assembled in the course of a day or two made the moderator's performance that much more impressive.

Just another example of how being present, listening, and not allowing yourself to go to the crazy place where dread and fear take over can make you a better speaker, whether you're on the panel or moderating it.